Harrison Ford Hospitalized Following Plane Crash in California

This is absolutely harrowing news: iconic actor and living legend Harrison Ford has been critically injured in a plane crash. The plane crash-landed on a Mar Vista, California, golf course today and Ford was subsequently rushed to the hospital. Ford, who’s been reprising his role in the new series of Star Wars films and recently signed on for the long-gestating Blade Runner sequel, is 72 years old—making his enduring dedication to these franchises even more remarkable.

UPDATE: NBC News is reporting that Ford's condition has been downgraded to “fair to moderate.” According to NBC Los Angeles, “Ford's injuries were originally described as ‘critical,’ but sources emphasized that they are better characterized as serious, including lacerations to the head and possible fractures.”

Ford's publicist said in a statement:

Harrison was flying a WW2 vintage plane today which had engine trouble upon take off. He had no other choice but to make an emergency landing, which he did safely. He was banged up and is in the hospital receiving medical care. The injuries sustained are not life threatening, and he is expected to make a full recovery.

TMZ was the first to report on Ford and the plane crash, with several other outlets confirming thereafter. Ford’s plane crash-landed on the Penmar Golf Course following a malfunction. Ford reported engine failure at 2:21pm PT and requested emergency landing. Ford was the only person on board the small aircraft which then suffered a “medium to high impact” according to officials. Ford was immediately rushed to the local hospital with multiple deep lacerations, where, according to Variety, his condition was originally declared critical, but later downgraded to “fair to moderate”.

Rich Polk, Getty Images

As noted by Variety, the actor has been a pilot for many years and has walked away from a handful of crashes unscathed.

Ford was in a helicopter crash in 1999 Santa Clara, California. He would later tell National Geographic of that accident, “There was a mechanical failure while we were practicing power recovery autorotations. It was more or less a hard landing. Luckily, I was with another aviation professional and neither of us was hurt — and both of us are still flying.”

Last year, Ford was injured on the set of Star Wars: The Force Awakens after a door on the Millennium Falcon set struck his leg. Production on the film was halted for two weeks while the actor rehabbed from a broken leg. Multiple sources at Disney confirmed that Ford's work on the upcoming Star Wars film has been completed and this most recent injury will not impact the production.

Our thoughts are with Harrison Ford and his family during this time as we hope for a successful recovery. We’ll keep you posted with any further developments.